I’ve always been one to mock restaurants for being overpriced, and clown their customers for succumbing to their snappy, photo-ready meals. At the local joint down the street the food is almost always twice as hearty for half the price. And usually I’m right — “sometimes things that are expensive are worse.” Sava’s was one such restaurant that drew my ire. That was, until I went there.
I have been to Sava’s a grand total of one time and it was for Sunday brunch. It was on a whim — a graduated former Managing Arts Editor was back in town but it was his last day visiting, and a current Managing Arts Editor invited me to get food with them before the weekly Sunday Daily Arts meeting. “Savas @ 1,” they texted. “Brunch bitchez,” I texted back. When we were finally seated we were still in the time period one can consider “brunch” (I say 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) so the Sava’s Sunday brunch buffet was an option to us. My wallet was a little scared, and my friends preferred to forgo the “petite” mimosa that comes with the buffet for a single meal and a bunch of big kid mimosas instead.
God, I wish I had sprung for the buffet. I don’t remember quite what I ordered (it leaned more towards the “unch” in brunch”) and it was still quite good, but seeing tables of boho 20- and 30-year-olds come back and forth with plates of roasted brussel sprouts, overflowing frittatas and fluffy waffles made me dream of having a five-thousand-follower Instagram account where all I did was have brunch everyday and post it an hour later. Throw in some sponsor money too? Bless.
The Sava’s Sunday brunch buffet is ever-rotating with new sweet and savory options, so no trip to Sava’s for this weekly delight will be exactly the same. And, quite simply, everytime you dine at Sava’s, you feel like a million bucks. Sharing the same table at such a luxurious locale with two friends to whom I highly looked up was the closest I’ll ever come to sharing a meal with Anna Wintour at a Michelin-starred restaurant on the Upper East Side. And shhh, don’t tell anyone, I had a large sip of one of their mimosas to boot. You know it’s good when it makes you want to drop fifty bucks on a fake ID to try it again.